BARDIC TRADITION
Words had power.
In Gaelic Ireland, the file (poet) held a rank second only to the king. Trained for up to twenty years in the bardic schools, poets composed elaborate verse in strict meters, memorized vast genealogies, and served as the living memory of their patrons’ dynasties.
A poet’s praise could legitimize a chief; a poet’s satire could destroy a reputation. The belief in the magical power of poetic speech — that a satire could raise blisters on the face of its target — gave poets extraordinary social and political influence.
Ó hEodhusa served Fermanagh.
The Ó hEodhusa (O’Hussey) family were the hereditary poets of the Maguire lords of Fermanagh. The most famous was Eochaidh Ó hEodhusa (c. 1560–1612), who composed poetry for Hugh Maguire and witnessed the destruction of the Gaelic order.
His poem “Ode to the Maguire” (composed for Hugh Maguire as he rode to war) is one of the last great works of the bardic tradition. After the Flight of the Earls, the bardic schools closed, the patronage vanished, and the thousand-year tradition of professional Gaelic poetry died.
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